Doctor's Visit

Item #1: We are expecting again! I think the people who read this already know that but just in case...

Item#2:
I had an experience this week that has been frustrating and scary and left me with some questions about  our healthcare system. Last friday my Dr called and said I needed to get a blood draw and a CBC ASAP because they forgot to take an extra vial at my appointment on thursday. I went to my hospital and even though my boss said I could just have my nurse friend draw it, they still made me register and pay $50+ for an "out-patient procedure." Then on Monday I got a phone message from the O.B. Drs. office saying that there was something wrong with my blood and that they had made an appointment for me at the Cancer Research Institute in Roanoke for 2:30 on friday. My platelet count is off, that's all it said! So of course, I began to worry some and wonder what was wrong. I looked it up on the internet which is not always wise. The only connection between low platelet count and pregnancy was something called HELLP syndrome which is potentially fatal and the only cure is immediate delivery of fetus which at 16 weeks would not survive.

I wasn't necessarily stressing out because I figured they were just being safe but as the appointment got closer and I thought "cancer center" I began to think of my cousin who was diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant. I decided it would be better to have Adam with me for support so we arranged to have a babysitter come over and we drove up together. After a $60 copay and a bunch of paperwork, we sat in the office for 2 hours waiting to see the Dr. As I looked around the room at all the people undergoing chemo, with hair loss and the like, I began to become more anxious. Then all that was showing on the television was the View having a special episode about Breast Cancer. When we finally went in to see the Dr. I was somewhat prepared for the worst. He started interviewing me and asking every question in the book. After an hour of questions, he finally reviewed the bloodwork with me and began asking his Intern,  "Could it be this? Could it be that? What do you think about this?" they covered everything form Lupus to Guillan Barre to Rheumatoid arthritis to bone cancer. Finally he said that the numbers weren't severely low and especially considering when I had my last blood test right before Lilly was born, the platelet count was low then. Also the white blood count was low and that's what they couldn't figure out. So they said that the best thing would be to just watch and see if they get worse.  He ran a bunch more tests and said I might want to get an ultrasound of my spleen (which would cost me several hundred dollars and probably show that everything was normal).

I am extremely grateful and relieved that everything came back fine and that we didn't hear any awful news. I just wonder if it even occurs to the Drs. what it does to a person to hear a voice message that they need to go to a cancer center. (Which consequently is the same facility as the hematology lab- they just call it the cancer center). Do they realize how much that freaks a person out? Why do the Drs. have to keep you waiting so long. My patients are always complaining about long Drs. waits. But if I have a 2:30 appointment and I arrive 30 mins. early, I expect to be seen before 4:00. And what about cost? Do Drs. even consider that all these tests they want to run cost me money? I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry and if there was something wrong I would want to know about it but it just seems like such a waste for them to brainstorm tests that will "all probably be negative but we just want to cover ourselves."

He asked me to come back in a month but I don't know if I will because my OBGYN can check my blood counts. I also refused the spleen ultrasound and I figure I'll just ask them to check it when I have my baby ultrasound. They'll probably say no because it's not their specialty but I figure it's worth a try.

Again, I am so grateful that things seem to be progressing well and I have been feeling pretty good- comparitively. I have many friends who are struggling with infertility and other who have had miscarriages. Adam and I have not had to deal with either and that scares me because I feel like it is probably our turn or our due.  I thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity I have to be a mother and for my 3 1/2 wonderful children.  Our ultrasound is in 3 weeks and then we should find out gender :) yay!

Spontenaity and Tweetsie Railroad Labor Day 2012

At different times in our lives, Adam and I have been known for being spontaneous people. In fact that was one of the reasons I married him. One night when we were dating he randomly drove me to an overlook in Park City where we could see the big full moon just right. Then the next date we driving somewhere and a good song came on and he stopped the car on a rooftop so we could have our own private swing dance. It drove some of our more planning oriented friends crazy at first, but then they got used to us. 

Over the last 9 years, it has become a little harder to be spontaneous. For one thing, to haul 3 kids, a baby (or 2 depending on how some of us are acting) it takes enough gear to fill up a minivan even for a simple day trip. Cost is another thing that impedes us sometimes. Around here we don't have any free cabins to stay in so any trip usually requires a hotel stay and gas of course. If we want to go to Olive Garden or Target even, it takes an hour of driving so we better really want that olive garden...  Spontenaity is something I've been missing and this weekend we had a chance to renew ourselves. Sunday night Adam asked if I was going to work on Labor Day. (I could have if I wanted to but noone was depending on me to work.) One of the things on our bucket list was to go see tweetsie railroad. It is a small train themed amusement park that had been recommended to us down in North Carolina. We looked it up and it looked pretty fun. We asked some friends to go with us, but they declined and said it looked like it might rain. It's also 3.5 hours away and cost more than we had originally thought.  We thought about it and said, "What the heck, let's just be spontaneous and do it!" So we woke up at the regular time 7:00 because our kids do not ever sleep in and drove down to Boon, NC. We found a little coupon at the grocery store and had a great time.  They had rides and shows.

 This is us ready for action. The park is built on a mountain so Adam and Lilly had taken the ramp and we took the stairs. There were ALOT of stairs.

 Ready for action!!

 Crazy guys on the Tornado.

 Cute girls panning for gold. That was Jack's favorite part. He is really into rocks right now. Especially shiny ones- crystals, gold, and jewels.

 Feeding the goats. They had feed in an ice cream cone but the animals favorite treat was the CONE! They fed llamas, ostridge, deer and lots of goats.

 Following this adventure, the boys were supposed to go with me down the chair lift to the other side of the park but Jack ran ahead and got lost. Then we had a huge downpour. It was raining so hard everyone ran for cover. I called adam and told him jack was lost. He ran through the rain to ask the chair lift man if jack had come down alone and he hadn't. Someone had taken jack to an employee and I tracked him down up by the animals. Whew, that was our first lost child experience and got all our hearts pounding. Needless to say, we had some little chats about staying together and what to do if you find yourself missing.

 The saloon girls we watched their show while we ate our lunchables.

 Cute Lilly riding on the train. i just love taking her pictures.

 The train was heisted by bandits who had a shootout in the wild west town. Then they were attacked by Indians at the next stop. The boys sure dug the shoot outs.  The cowboys were pretty funny. It made us think of cherry hill and made me wish I could have worked at a place like that for my summer jobs.

 Jack behind the wheel- watch out!!

 A real ferris wheel- makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

 Adam and Jack did the crazy big kid rides and Jack wanted to ride them over and over.

 "World famour tweetsie cloggers" or so they called themselves.

 Lilly on the stage coach.

It rained some but for us it was great because it kept the other people away and we had no lines. We could ride the rides as many times as we wanted. We drove home and got back around 10:00 PM with 4 sleepers in the car. It felt a little crazy and a little spontaneous but ahhh, it feels good to be back.

Summer's done now Back to School

The craze that went on all summer at our house was Bey Blades. The boys have been obsessed. They are basically tops that you pull a plastic cord and they spin. They have an arena where they spin several at a time to "battle." Charlie took these pictures of his beys. All our friends have beys, especially the Hodnetts. I even made them special bey blade carrying bags with their initials on them. They came over alost every day and all the boys would sit in a circle and battle for hours. It was good times, but it seems like now that school is starting the fad may be over. That's ok with me because each bey costs up to $12 and Charlie keeps losing every one of his, so on to the next crazy way to waste their parents money...

 This is what hapens when I try and watch a movie and Charlie goes upstairs by himself where we keep cookies and bubbles on top of the fridge.

 FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! The boys were very excited to be starting school this year. Charlie's in pre-school and Jack is in 1st grade. They get to ride the school bus home which is Charlie's favorite part. Check out his excited face in this picture. When I asked him what he does at school, he says, "we ate and then we played and then we ate and then we played some more." Sounds like a good school to me.

 Happy Nine Year anniversary to us!! Aug 12 was our anniversary, I can't believe it's been that long. I like looking back at our old pictures. We have changed, put on a few pounds.. but we are still the same, just surrounded by more little people to love and hold. Bring on a new year...

Happy 24th of July

We were at Mayby mill on the actual 24th which was fitting because we got to look at a house that was built in 1860. Our stake had a fun pioneer celebration and emergency preparedness day. We had lots of fun and had a really good turnout. 

 My little Pioneer girl

 The kids got to pet a chicken

 and milk a pretend cow

 and shave with a butter knife

 Cute Daddy and Lilly

 There was also a waterslide and some baby wading pools. Lilly was quite the modest pioneer.